Located just 4 miles from the Pacific Coast, UC Irvine's new <a href="http://studioart.arts.uci.edu/studios-labs" target="_blank">Contemporary Arts Center</a> was built to be in sync with the sunny weather in Southern California. The building needs very little in the way of mechanical climate control and relies almost exclusively on solar passive design and natural ventilation. Culver City-based <a href="http://www.ehrlicharchitects.com/" target="_blank">Ehrlich Architects</a> came up with the design for the innovative, energy efficient building on the university's arts campus. The LEED-designed building contains a black box theater, an art gallery, art labs, recording studios, offices, classrooms and lots of studio space.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

The Contemporary Arts Center is UC Irvine's most recent addition to the <a href="http://studioart.arts.uci.edu/studios" target="_blank">Claire Trevor School of the Arts</a> and includes many innovative educational spaces.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

Built into a slight slope, the building contains a block box theater and an art gallery at its center.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

Surrounding these two spaces are all the classrooms, labs, offices and studios spaces, all of which have access to daylight and breezes.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

The theater and the gallery are the only two spaces that need climate control and the rest rely on natural ventilation.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

To achieve this passive climate control, <a href="http://www.ehrlicharchitects.com/" target="_blank">Ehrlich Architects</a> and their team went through a controlled design process to provide the correct amount of shade, light, windows, air flow in each of the rooms.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

Occupants of the building were also educated on the proper way to make rooms cooler or warmer by opening windows.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

A ventilation shaft on the top of the building along with operable skylights allows hot air to move up and out.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

The building was clad in brick veneer, concrete masonry and glass to match the surrounding campus and were specially designed to allow the right amount of light inside.

Cartoon showing the location of all the different uses within the building.

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UCI Arts-Ehrlich Architects

Located just 4 miles from the Pacific Coast, UC Irvine's new Contemporary Arts Center was built to be in sync with the sunny weather in Southern California. The building needs very little in the way of mechanical climate control and relies almost exclusively on solar passive design and natural ventilation. Culver City-based Ehrlich Architects came up with the design for the innovative, energy efficient building on the university's arts campus. The LEED-designed building contains a black box theater, an art gallery, art labs, recording studios, offices, classrooms and lots of studio space.